Against running with headphones

Give the gift of inspiration. Learn from the world's greatest minds on MasterClass. Buy one All-Access Pass for yourself and receive an All-Access Pass to gift to someone special this holiday. Offer ends Dec 26.

The host of NPR's Wait Wait…Don't Tell Me! wrote about the delights of running in our overconnected age and it looks fantastic.

“If I don’t leave my headphones behind when I run, I wouldn’t spend a single minute of my waking life free from input.

I have a friend who wears headphones on long solo runs because, he says, “I can’t spend that much time alone in my head.” I disagree. He can, and he should. Spending that much time inside one’s head, along with the voices and the bats hanging from the various dendrites and neurons, is one of the best things about running, or at least one of the most therapeutic. Your brain is like a duvet cover: Every once in a while, it needs to be aired out.”